MacBook Pro 15-inch (early 2011) hands-on

Yep, that’s right Apple fans, we’ve bagged a new MacBook Pro from Apple in order to give it a run for its money and see how fast Thunderbolt (that’s the new port) really is. So while we start going about getting a review out so we can see if the system really is 2x faster that the previous models, we thought we would share with you a bevy of photos of the new machine.

The eagle eyed amongst you will notice that the design of the new Apple laptop is actually identical to previous models with Apple keeping the unibody shell the same as before.

In fact, the only real difference to the outside design is the addition of the Thunderbolt logo instead of the display port, on the left hand side of the laptop.

While it might look the same from the outside, it’s packed with plenty of speed enhancements, from the addition of a SDXC card reader instead of a standard SD card reader, and a new webcam that now records in 720p at 1280x720 resolution.

Other treats include faster quad-core processors (on the 15- and 17-inch models) although Apple hasn't moved away from DVD install disks like they did with the MacBook Air.

As for why there’s no SSD option as standard? Apple weren’t really ready to answer that one, merely suggesting that if you want SSD (up to 512GB no less) you could add that in as an option; and that if you really must have it from the start you should get its MacBook Air laptop instead.

Stuart has been a tech journalist since 1998 and written for a number of publications around the world. Regularly turning up on television, radio and in newspapers, Stuart has played with virtually every gadget available.